First recorded usage of a word

[silverfoxcc]

ISTR that there is a publication that lists the first recorded use of words esp slang as the definitive authority

an entry may read


the word 'ABCDEF ' has been attributed by several sources as being in widespread use in 1920, but the first recorded use was in the novel LMN by XYZ written and published in 1950

a search of wiki doesn't give an answer, anyone out there have any pointers?

Thanks

[Smoggy XJR]

Any etymological dictionary should do this. My 2 volume Oxford English dictionary certainly does.

Any particular word in mind?

[silverfoxcc]

Gertcha

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Chas & Dave, about 1979?

[Smoggy XJR]

Sorry, that one's not listed.
I presume you've tried Googling? I did but only found the origin as a contraction.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Smoggy XJR said:

Sorry, that one's not listed.
I presume you've tried Googling? I did but only found the origin as a contraction.

Are you serious, or do I need the parrot?

[Smoggy XJR]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Smoggy XJR said:

Sorry, that one's not listed.
I presume you've tried Googling? I did but only found the origin as a contraction.

Are you serious, or do I need the parrot?

Que?

Anyway, I also found on studfile.net:

gertcha! exclamation British

a cockney cry, roughly equivalent to ‘get away!’, ‘give over!’, or ‘get out of it!’ and expressing disbelief or gentle mockery. The dated expression was revived for use in the musical accompaniment (by Chas and Dave) to a television advertisement for Courage Best Bitter screened in 1983.

‘“Gercher”, wheezes Dad convulsively over the debris of the saloon bar.’

(Town magazine, May 1964)

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

It comes from get ya, or get away.

..and the Gertcha song was '79 I reckon.

[silverfoxcc]

Def not

Chas and I grew up in the same street and one of our neighbours was using it in 1957 when referring to her black mongrel whose name cannot now be mentioned when it escaped!! but as she never wrote a book using it it is only a word that was heard in use

When other words were discussed on other forums it was always said that the first recorded use in the media was the definitive answer

To put it in a motoring context..

a listee says his dad drove a Loxley Lozenge waaay back in 1893, if the earliest mention in print was in a 1958 edition of Autocar then despite his claims we can only use conclusive proof that it DID exist in 1958 and not before..unless earlier publications csame to light!!

HTH

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

The phrase was indeed earlier.

I was just querying the date of Chas & Dave's song



Cor blimey, left me strides & me kettle up the apples & pairs. It cost me a monkey!

[Smoggy XJR]

Yes, that's what I said in my first post. It's a contraction.

And the OP asked for the first recorded use, which, to the best of my limited ability, I've tried to help with.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Smoggy XJR said:

Yes, that's what I said in my first post. It's a contraction.

And the OP asked for the first recorded use, which, to the best of my limited ability, I've tried to help with.

[silverfoxcc]

Thanks for all the assistance, this bloody book would help if i could remember its name!!!